retail down

High hopes for phenomenal business
over the Christmas and New Year’s period did not materialize for many Whistler
retailers who rely predominately on tourist trade.

Several business owners said not
only did the numbers fail to live up to the unrealistic expectations and hype
for this millennium holiday period, but performance was actually down over last
year, particularly for the period between Christmas and New Year which is
traditionally rock-solid.

There is, however, still a general
mood of optimism and an expectation end-of-season results will still match
those of the record-breaking 1998/99 winter.

Bob Adams, Whistler Chamber of
Commerce president and owner of the Grocery Store and the Upper Village Market,
said his holiday business performance was more on par with two years ago than
with last year. He said his businesses are tourist oriented and often reflect
the number of actual visitors in the resort. “Business was strong leading up to
a couple of days before Christmas and then we were down significantly through
Christmas to about two days before New Year’s,” said Adams. “I have talked to a
number of people in the business community and I think that trend was fairly
general.”

He said two key factors likely
influenced performance — resistance to aggressive millennium pricing plus the
fact business executives likely deferred their holidays because of potential
Y2K problems at their places of work.

“I think people decided not to come
because of high costs and the feeling they were being gouged.”

But, said Adams, those who decided
not to travel over Christmas and New Year’s will still likely come in January,
February or March. “All the indicators I have seen show really strong visits
from about the ninth of January. I am very optimistic and I think overall it
will be a very good winter.”

That positive outlook is also
prevalent with other business owners. Long-time Whistler retailer and
councillor Dave Kirk said he too is hopeful about the remainder of the season.

“I am optimistic based on the
information we have been given.” But he did say business was down this holiday
season.

“Last year was a hard act to
follow... in our business (sports shops) there’s always more competition it
seems. The piece of pie gets thinner and thinner so it’s hard to compare with
previous years but I have talked to people, like Doug Forseth (senior vice
president of operations for Whistler-Blackcomb), and we know the numbers were
definitely down for the four days after Christmas and that was reflected in
sales for sure.”